UK Edtech startup Uptime raises £11.5 million

A London-based educational technology (edtech) app Uptime just secured £11.5 million (approximately $16 million) in a seed funding round from investors including Willian Currie, Lord Alliance and Terry Leahy. The funds raised will be used for product development and aid the expansion of the app into international markets.

Uptime is an edtech app that presents quick 5-minute knowledge hacks from the best books, courses and documentaries in the world. The app officially launched on iOS in January 2021.

Where the funding came from?

The seed funding round came from the founders of Uptime and serial entrepreneurs Jack Bekhor and Jamie True. The duo has previously founded LifeWork, which was acquired by Morneau Shepell in 2018. Former Facebook and YouTube executive, Patrick Walker (also an Uptime co-founder) invested in Uptime. Other private investors including Lord David Alliance (ex-CEO of Tesco Sir Terry Leahy and Federal Street SPV).

Patrick Walker said that last year, the global educational technology market was valued at about $89 billion. People are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on educational content, online classes and watching documentaries that help them grow and build their soft skills. According to Walker, this is a great opportunity for edtech content creators. However, for customers, he says, it leads to information overload and can be difficult to cut through and find quality in an ‘oversaturated market’.

With Uptime, the founders have created something that aims to be a one-stop shop for knowledge. Instead of going through endless websites of digital courses, video platforms and bestseller lists, Uptime presents its users the best content from only trusted experts, sources and organizations.

Users can choose the topics that they are interested in and get access to key elements of the content in easy-to-watch and snackable audio, visual and text formats. Though the platform is for everyone who wants to learn and has only a short amount of time, it is perfect for Gen Z and millennials who have short attention spans.

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UK-based edtech app Uptime

Born in London, Uptime has been created with the vision of building a platform that makes knowledge affordable, accessible and fun while also being free of doom-scrolling, negativity and advertising. Founded in 2019 by Patrick Walker, Jack Bekhor and Jamie True, Uptime uses the powerful combination of advanced machine learning and human curation to pick the best courses, books and documentaries from the most credible sources.

The learnings and insights from these sources are compressed into a 5-minute ‘Hacks’ that keep the user informed, inspired and entertained. At present, the edtech platform can be downloaded on Apple App Store and will be available on the Google Play Store from 22nd February 2021. At time of launch, Uptime will be offering over 1,500 Knowledge Hacks and the company will be adding more titles to its platform every week.

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